Tornado Outbreak Friday PM – HIGH RISK AREA!

39 confirmed dead in TN, IN, KY, AL and OH – Who is the baby girl found injured in a field 10 miles from where she lived?! I have a hard time believing she flew that far…debris fell across the runways at the Cincinnati Airport (CVG). The National Guard has been called out to help in Indiana and Kentucky. The NWS had issued 297 tornado warnings. Only 189 warnings were issued in all of February for the entire country. Many reports of small hail with the t-showers that came through our area Friday aftn. and evening. It was probably an EF4 in Henryville IN. Looks like a +22-mile path of damage. Here’s storm reports from Louisville KY NWS, and from E. Tennessee (one EF3 and several EF2′s). There was a rare HIGH RISK AREA and a very large moderate risk area from Indiana and Ohio south into NE Mississippi and N. Alabama. Here’s current watches (tornado watches from IN/OH to MS/AL), meso-discussions, and storm reports (81 tornadoes reported on Friday, baseball-sized hail and wind damage). Here’s national lighting data and local lightning data. People were trapped in rubble (N. Alabama). Only twice has a high risk area been issued this early in the year. A high risk day indicates a considerable likelihood of a major tornado outbreak or (much less often) an extreme derecho event. On these days, the potential exists for extremely severe and life-threatening weather, including widespread strong or violent tornadoes and/or very destructive straight-line winds (Hail cannot verify or produce a high risk on its own, although such a day usually involves a threat for widespread very large hail as well). Many of the most prolific severe weather days were high risk days. Such days are quite rare; a high risk is typically issued only a few times each year (see List of SPC High Risk days). Keep coming back to the blog and watch us on TV for the latest. I’ve said before that this is going to be another bad year for tornadoes and severe storms. La Nina years have more tornadoes, more strong tornadoes and more long-track tornadoes and a higher risk of a tornado “event” with 40 or more tornadoes in a single 24-hour period. They tend to be centered farther to the east from “Tornado Alley” in the Plains. States like Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio tend to get more tornadoes in years like this (and sometimes southeast Michigan). Today’s storm featured an intensifying low pressure center that came right up into southern Michigan. Significant snow fell across N. Lower Michigan, 5-10″. This may be the last really good weekend for winter sports with cool temperatures and fresh snow to the north of Kent Co. Also, March is going to be a warm month…trees/blossoms and flowers will be early this year and I (as always with this pattern) am concerned about a spring frost causing some damage in April (not a sure thing – we’ve had early blossoming before without a hard frost), but like I said it’s a concern this year. Here’s the HPC 8″ snow probability forecast and the 4″ snow probability forecast. ALSO: Here’s the latest on the asteroid that’s going to come close to Earth in the year 2040. Picture is hail from the storm that produced the strong tornado in S. Indiana and West Liberty Tornado. (click to enlarge)

You’re timing is good. Very strong wind gusts tonight is your biggest concern. Don’t speed and keep both hands on the wheel if you can. You’ll miss the severe weather by tonight and the weather should be OK there tomorrow.

Well, made it back. we were in Dayton when the storm was bearing down and got out about 30 minutes ahead of it. It was wild to say the least. I feel really bad for those people. We had stopped at Subway to grab a quick sandwich and people starting freaking out. we left in a huge hurry. Cars doing at least 90 heading North on I75……

What a day.

I must say though- the drive from saginaw back to GR was worse weather-wise…..drove through at least 3 large storms with hail. When I was south of St. Johns on 27, The hail was hitting so hard I thought it was going to break my windshield!!

So,since there was so many twisters in so many places/states at the same time,would that be considered what they call a swarm? They said on TV so far up to 18 dead. I am sure that will go up to around 50. Such a bad day. At least the NWS let people know it was coming. I just don’t know how to put it all into words.